Sustainability and Remediation

Over 200 years of industrialisation have caused soil contamination to be widespread in Europe. Decision makers, scientists, businesses and individual citizens generally accept and understand the impacts of air and water pollution on human health and environment, but the impacts of soil contamination have a much lower profile. Soil contamination is very often perceived as a burden for policy makers and public administration and as a potential threat for citizens’ health and environment. From the 1980s until today Europe has developed numerous laws to reduce and remediate the adverse effects of soil pollution. Each country has gathered very valuable information and published their own work in the national language (normally not accessible and not known by other countries in Europe), on how to manage contaminated sites that originated from industrial settlements, urbanization or by accidents. This document is published at the initiative of the Eionet National Reference Centres for Soil, which established in 2015 an ad-hoc working group on contaminated sites and brownfields in Europe.The objective was to collect cases and successful stories of remediated sites and brownfields, harmonise and facilitate exchanges of information on contaminated soils and soil remediation between the Eionet contributing countries. These stories have been compiled in the present report as a publication to the International Year of Soil 2015. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the remediation of contaminated sites and brownfields rehabilitation which is essential for sustainable land use management and to share best practices and new techniques in soil remediation and management of contaminated sites, meanwhile raising awareness of the enormous efforts needed to succeed. This document presents examples of success stories of remediation of contaminated soils in various contexts and different European countries. It is not meant to provide an exhaustive inventory of remediated sites in all countries. Thirteen countries comprising 19 European regions present a total of 29 cases which illustrate how soil and brownfields remediation along with sustainable land management have become essential for reversing the trend of soil degradation and ensuring the provision of ecosystem services by soil. The cases show progress in research and innovative technologies of soil remediation, new outstanding approaches to soil remediation management, beneficial integration of stakeholders in decision-making and fruitful progress in raising public awareness and citizen science.These success stories have also achieved the restoration, safeguarding and longterm ensurance of some of the most widely recognized functions of soils, such as support for water regulation and purification, provision of new habitat for organisms, food, fibre and fuel, promotion of cultural and recreation areas and foundation for human infrastructure.

Water and Environment Journal, 1994

consequent desire lo problems. This paper This paper reviews recent developments in contami-technologies intended to deal with contaminating subnated land Ixeatment (soil and groundwater) in the UK, stances by extracting them. destroying them. stabilizparticularly with regard to:

Gasparatos, A. (2010): Embedded value systems in sustainability assessment tools and their implications. Journal of Environmental Management 91, 1613–1622. Hartmuth, G., Huber, K., Rink, D. (2008): Operationalization and contextualization of sustainability at the local Level. Sustain. Dev. 16(4), 261–270

2000

The Green City and Social Injustice: 21 Tales from North America and Europe. London: Routledge. , 2021

Following an industrial boom from the mid-to-late 19th century, Glasgow's East End underwent exceptional levels of industrial decline. By the 1960s, it suffered from wholesale abandonment and devaluation, visible through widespread swathes of vacant and derelict land and decrepit building structures. After several unsuccessful regeneration attempts over the decades, in 2007 Glasgow City Council (GCC) won the bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the East End. In 2008, the same area was subject to the largest regeneration project in Scotland-Clyde Gateway-rooted in sustainability discourses and the provision of new green and blue infrastructure. This chapter critically inquires into who has benefited from this process.

Environmental geology is a relatively new discipline which has developed out of engineering geology (the geology related to civil engineering) and includes, amongst other things, aspects of the behaviour of materials and the ground, hydrology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, environmental science, the mobility and fate of contaminants in the ground. The new environmental geologist is one of the partners in a multi-disciplinary team which is necessary for talking modern problems. The most common way of dealing with contaminated land is through the planning system, when a site is re-developed. There is a Government initiative to favour the re-development of brownfield sites rather than the development of greenfield ones. Often they are derelict sites which have been abandoned by industry and still contain the legacy of their industrial past. Typically, an organisation such as the Black Country Development Corporation or the Welsh Development Agency will rehabilitate an entire area, build new roads and provide sites to attract industry and commerce to the region. The environmental geologist has to find out what hazards remain and how these are best dealt with in order to make the new development safe and to ensure wider environmental protection. For example, the redevelopment of a scrap yard will involve the cleanup of the ground which is of immediate concern to the new owner and occupiers but it may also remove accumulations of mobile contaminants that may be leaching into the rivers or groundwater, such as oil or fuel from old vehicles or more toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from old transformers. To be able to do this efficiently requires a knowledge of what went on , and where, during the history of a site – the past is the key to the present. Now that the problems of contaminated land are being recognised more fully, the remediation of sites is not confined solely to when (and if) they are re-developed. Abandoned metal and coal mines, where pyrite has been exposed and allowed to oxidise, pose a threat to the environment from ferruginous, acidic discharges when the mines flood. On-going industrial concerns like oil depots are renowned for leaking pipes and underground tanks. It is becoming more common to investigate contamination at working as well as closed sites. This poses extra challenges for the investigating team. Indeed, there is a new section of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which is about to become law and requires local authorities to take action on contaminated land.

Remediation Journal, 2011

Sustainable remediation is at a crossroads. In a few short years it has become a mainstream topic while simultaneously maintaining its chimeral status. Sustainable remediation is a term claimed by many yet a concept apparently understood by few. Its characterization has necessitated the development of a plethora of metrics and tools yet its essence readily emerges. U.S.-led initiatives have been adopted around the globe. Relative sustainability appraisal is easy to carry out and potentially sufficient for most site circumstances. The need to adequately protect human health and the environment has been recognized. Now the industry needs to focus our attention on protection and restoration that itself has a reasonably maximized net benefit. O

The Science of the total environment, 2018

Decision support tools (DST) are often used in remediation projects to aid in the complex decision on how best to remediate a contaminated site. In recent years, the sustainable remediation concept has brought increased attention to the often-overlooked contradictory effects of site remediation, with a number of sustainability assessment tools now available. The aim of the present study is twofold: (1) to demonstrate how and when different assessment views affect the decision support outcome on remediation alternatives in a DST, and (2) to demonstrate the contribution of a full sustainability assessment. The SCORE tool was used in the analysis; it is based on a holistic multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach, assessing sustainability in three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Four assessment scenarios, compared to a full sustainability assessment, were considered to reflect different possible assessment views; considering public and private problem owner per...

2010

Government and corporate policies frequently require actions that contribute to sustainable development, as defined by the 'Brundtland Commission'. The contaminated land industry seeks to manage risks associated with the presence of contaminants in soil and groundwater, and has been generally regarded as playing a positive role in contributing towards sustainable development. However, remediation activities can also consume resources, such as energy, water and aggregate, generate waste materials and emissions to air and water, cause social impacts to local communities and infrastructure such as roads, and introduce safety hazards for workers and residents. In some circumstances the negative impacts of remediation activities can exceed the positive benefits that the remediation achieves.

2000

Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2020

This article proposes a bioeconomy approach to the management of contaminated sites with the aim to identify actions for the development of a common policy framework for environmental protection and sustainable development. Among the policies addressing pollution on land and at sea, we identify four main gaps that hamper the implementation of measures for the prevention and management of contaminated sites from local to systemic scales. We introduce three concepts from bioeconomy-(i) value-chain, (ii) regional perspective, and (iii) multi-sector approach-that are potentially conducive to socioeconomic and environmental improvement of degraded areas in Europe.

2021

Across the WHO European Region, the urban population is growing steadily and demand for land is rapidly increasing. Revitalizing and/or remediating industrial sites and contaminated land presents an opportunity for sustainable urban development. Such actions can also help in reducing the pressure on undisturbed land resources. However, redevelopment of contaminated sites may cause continued environmental and health consequences if contamination risks are not properly managed or remediated. This brief summarizes the lessons learned across Europe on the redevelopment of contaminated sites as a part of urban planning and renewal. Specifically, it aims to provide information on the health and environmental impacts to be considered during site redevelopment projects, and to identify good practice and relevant local experiences to support effective, healthy and sustainable redevelopment of contaminated sites. As such, this brief offers key messages to support the work of local decision-makers, planners, practitioners, researchers and civil society organizations.

Environment international, 2016

In Europe soil contamination has been recognized as a serious problem. The needs to remediate contaminated sites are not questionable, although the remediation actions are often hindered by their very high financial costs. On the other hand, the abandoned contaminated sites may have the potential for redevelopment and creating conditions appropriate for their productive reuse bringing social, economic and environmental benefits. The main concern associated with the contaminated sites is their potential adverse health impact. Therefore, in the process of contaminated site redevelopment the risk assessment and the subsequent risk management decisions will play a crucial role. The main objective of this study was to illustrate the role of the human health risk assessment (HRA) in supporting site remediation and reuse decisions. To exemplify the significance of the HRA process in this field the Nitrastur site, located in Asturias, Spain was used. Risks resulting from soil contamination ...

2014

The National Program for Rehabilitation of a Polluted Site (NPRPS) is a framework for scaling up followed by the clean up and rehabilitation of polluted sites and facilitate the reduction of environmental and health risks associated with the legacy of polluted sites. The NPRPS reviews and updates the available information on polluted sites. This includes assessment of contaminated site. An inventory and database of contaminated sites is also maintained. The process involves field visits followed by data verification leading to prioritization of sites for rehabilitation. One such site which is probably contaminated is Pace city-2 in Gurgaon which falls in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Pace city-2 is a water body where sediment has settled over time and lead to ground and surface water and soil contamination. The present paper presents the on-site investigations and the probable remedial measures for ground water and soil remediation for the site.